Dr. Charles E. Woodward
Astrophysics

One focus of Dr. Woodward’s research is the study of solar system comets, which are frozen reservoirs of primitive solar dust grains and ices. He analyzes the composition and size distribution of cometary dust grains from infrared imaging and polarimetry techniques using the LBT and Steward Observatory telescopes which support his Spitzer Infrared Telescope activities. In this way, he can determine the physical characteristics of the solid materials that constituted the primitive solar nebula, out of which planetesimals, then planets were formed. His published research and been concerned with infrared spectroscopy, star formations, novae, and comets. In 1997, he co-authored an article on the baffling halo emission from Galaxy NGC5907 in the revered British science journal Nature. Woodward and collaborators participated in the NASA Deep Impact mission, providing real time, ground-based near-and mid-infrared remote sensing spectroscopic support as detailed a series of articles published in 2005 in the leading American journal "Science."